Re: Are pragmas always "instructions"? (was: Re: What is a pragma?)

> Intuition being notoriously unreliable, I checked the dictionaries on my
> shelf (but not the ones in the front room).


Let’s go to the fount of all wisdom. OED3 s.v. instruction, n.:

sense 1: "An authoritative order to be obeyed; an oral or written command. Frequently in plural or as a mass noun: orders, directives.”; 

sense 3a: That which is taught; knowledge or authoritative guidance imparted by one person to another. Also as a count noun: a thing taught; a lesson; an informative or edifying rule or example; 

sense 3b: In plural. Directions about how something should be done or operated; detailed information given as to the use, assembly, etc., of a product.

sense 8: Computing. An expression in a program or routine that instructs a processor to perform a particular operation (esp. a basic operation).

Sense 8 seems to back up your reading, though I would argue that defining it in that way is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy! Sense 3 might back up my claim that, in general use, an instruction can be declarative - a rule or direction, not a command.

In any case, never trust a lexo. They’re tricksy.